may flowers and more....

It's the middle of May already... how did that happen? I've been enjoying all the May flowers. My bleeding heart plant is finally in full bloom: We have lots of forget-me-nots:
And carpet phlox:
My tulips have been blooming, too. This one was bent over, so it was hard to get a good photo:



These double tulips are my favorites:
Speaking of flowers, on May 5th, Emmalie and I attended the Floral Fiesta WELCA Spring Dinner at church. Someone had made these pretty tissue flowers for every table:
There were almost 100 women at the dinner:
There was so much yummy food!
And then Joyce Grattoni from Tablescapes entertained us by showing us how to create beautiful tables for special occasions:
A Cinco de Mayo table:
A tropical table:
At the end of the dinner, different items were raffled off, and Emm won four margarita glasses with gerbera daisies in them! The 8th was Mother's Day, and my kiddos presented me with breakfast in bed that morning. Ben gave me this flower magnet he made at school (after tracing his hand):
George and the kids also gave me some dark chocolate, yum:
And this pretty fern for the backyard:
Then the 5 of us went to Brookfield Zoo. We had not been there in two years, so it was fun to see it again!

We enjoyed the new Bear Grotto:


And all the other animals, too!

"Wild" goslings with their parents:

We had tickets to Stingray Bay, and got to pet some stingrays. That was Ben's favorite part, and he is still talking about it! :)





After several attempts, we finally got a decent Mother's Day photo of me and the kids. (I wasn't feeling the best, though, and it kinda shows.)
On the 14th, George, Nick, and I attended the school district's "2nd Annual Healthly Lifestyle and Wellness Gala and Award Ceremony". Apparently there was some confusion, and we never received the invitation we were supposed to get, but someone called 2 days before to tell me about it and see if we were going. Luckily, we didn't have anything going on that evening, and we were able to find a babysitter for Ben at the last moment (Emm already had plans).

Nick was invited to the gala because he'd won the Healthy Lifestyle and Wellness Rap Lyrics Contest in the fall. We are so proud of him! :)

The gala turned out to be a very fancy affair, much fancier than we'd expected. We were treated to an orchestra performance and hors d'oeuvres at the reception, and then a delicious meal complete with entertainment like a Chinese dragon parade and salsa dancing. It was an international theme, and there were several photo ops set up, including this American exhibit: and this South African exhibit:
Nick was presented with this award after the dinner:
I didn't get a picture of him actually receiving it, because George and I had to go up with Nick. There were two professional photographers there all evening, so hopefully at some point we will have access to the photos they took.

This is another big week at our house... Nick has 6th Grade Camp this week, Ben graduates from preschool, George and I have tickets to see The Airborne Toxic Event, and then there is a special end-of-the-school-year event at church. I just hope that I'll be feeling well enough to enjoy all of it ~ I'm still dealing with some health issues and will be having some tests done this week, as well....